Australia job advertisements post strong bounce in May

[SYDNEY] Australian overall job advertisements posted an encouraging bounce in May, picking up from a generally flat trend since October in a sign the economy is growing fast enough to generate jobs.

A monthly survey by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group showed total job advertisements rose 2.4 per cent in May, from April when it slipped 0.6 per cent.

That took the annual pace of job ads growth to 9.1 per cent.

The number of internet job ads climbed 2.6 per cent, while the more volatile newspaper component fell 12.6 per cent.

"After six months of broadly flat job ads, the strong rise in ads in May is encouraging. Despite some ongoing headwinds, the economy is tracking along quite well and the transition to non-mining activity is occurring," said Felicity Emmett, head of Australian Economics at ANZ. "The rise in job ads is consistent with the strength in business conditions, which point to ongoing solid growth in the economy."

Official data last week showed Australia's A$1.6 trillion (S$1.6 trillion) of gross domestic product grew 1.1 per cent in the first quarter, accelerating from an upwardly revised 0.7 per cent and well above the median forecast of 0.8 per cent.

REUTERS